My Adress Book shows strange behavior, cannot search or edit

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Level 1

18 points

My Adress Book shows strange behavior, cannot search or edit

Hi folks!

I recently updated to Lion, also switched my .me to iCloud. At first everything was perfect, now I am experiencing strange behaviours:

I am starting to add fotos to my contacts because I like the view in Mail.app where the contact fotos are shown in the list of emails. After I added some more photos I cannot search in the address book anymore. Typing a name into the search field and nothing happens. Also clicking on a name an nothing happens on the right side. Absolutely nothing. There's only one entry that does not change and when hitting the "edit" Button, only this one contact is changed. Also this one contact changes when doing a right click on a contact name on the left side.

I did some searches here but did not find anything. What I did was deleting the "AddressBook-v22.abcddb" in the ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/ Folder as suggested in some other threads but this does not change anything.

This is really annoying and I cannot use my Address Book which I really need. I have more than 2000 contacts inside and it's essential for my business!

Please help!

Thanks and best, Jochen

Message was edited by: Joo-Chen, typo

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Nov 1, 2011 1:07 AM

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Answer 1

Joo-Chen Author

Level 1

18 points

Nov 1, 2011 1:10 AM in response to Joo-Chen

OK, I'm not the only one ....

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3429887

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Answer 2

Joo-Chen Author

Level 1

18 points

Nov 1, 2011 2:01 AM in response to Joo-Chen

OK, I closed all apps and tried to repair the disk permissions. And there were a lot to repair. After the repair was done, I opened Address Book again but the same behaviour as before. Then I did a restart and WOW! Everything fine again. Opening Address Book, clicking on the name on the left side showed up the details on the right side.

BUT ... while typing this, I tried the search and again, nothing happened. No filter, no result. Then clicking once on a contact name brought the same like before: nothing. Doubleclicking opens a new small window with the contact. The same like before!

Doing the Repair Permissions again, the Application Support folder had different permissions again!

Abweichende Zugriffsrechte für „Library/Application Support“, Soll-Wert: drwxr-xr-x , Ist-Wert: drwxrwxr-x .

„Library/Application Support“ wurde repariert

OK, I'm gonna submit this and reboot. Let's see, what happens!

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Answer 3

Joo-Chen Author

Level 1

18 points

Nov 1, 2011 2:38 AM in response to Joo-Chen

OK, seems like I can replicate the behaviour:

- repair Disk Permissions

- restart MBP (do not open all apps again)

- after reboot, only the Finder is open

- open Address Book

- click on contact name on the left side, brings details on the right, editing works also -> great!

- click in the search field and type a name

-> no filter of the list or search result appears

- click on any contact left hand side, nothing happens on the right, the last clicked contact before the search remains open

- double click on contact name opens separate window as expected

- no search possible anymore

- no editing possible anymore

-> again repair permissions, and restart and same procedure ...

this is Adress Book 6.1 (1062) on MacBook Pro 17'' with 10.7.2

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Answer 4

Nov 2, 2011 3:49 AM in response to Joo-Chen

Joo-Chen this was helpfull, it is working again idea from decafin8:

Back up your Address Book: From Address Book, choose File > Export and choose Export vCard to a desitnation of your choosing.
Close Address Book.
From the Desktop, Hold Option and click Go in the menu at the top of the screen.
Choose Library. If this is not an option, you are not pressing the Option key or you are not an Admin.
Expand the Application Support folder and drag the AddressBook folder to the Trash. Close window.
Open Address Book and import your address book vCard.

Good luck D+++

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Answer 5

Joo-Chen Author

Level 1

18 points

Nov 2, 2011 6:31 AM in response to dansen_bratislava

Hi D! I hoped not to delete and restore from backup, but in fact, this worked until now! Only one thing: I did not restore from the backup file but added the iCloud account in the settings again and the app just synced and everything is there again.

Thank you! Problem solved! Hope it remains ;-)

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Answer 6

Dec 6, 2011 1:52 PM in response to dansen_bratislava

I tried this BUT only exported one contact, the first on my list. Do you have to highlight all contacts before you hit "export"???? Bummer

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Answer 7

Dec 6, 2011 2:57 PM in response to sarahfromgolden

Forget it!! Address book KEEPS CRASHING!!! I only have 200 contacts and I keep taking the support file and putting it in the trash over and over, restarting and importing in. NOW I CAN"T even do that!!

I am so frustrated I could scream.

That solution is only good for about 30 minutes, then it acts up. Pretty disappointed Apple. Lion is NOT what I thought it was. I want my old address book!!!

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Answer 8

Joo-Chen Author

Level 1

18 points

Dec 7, 2011 2:02 AM in response to sarahfromgolden

Hey Sarah, use "export Adress Book archive" for the export, not only one ... I have more than 2000 contacts in my ab, and it worked perfectly since the advises from dansen_bratislava.

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Answer 9

ZBZB

Level 1

0 points

Dec 7, 2011 5:37 PM in response to dansen_bratislava

dansen_bratislava's suggestion worked for me except that I was unable to complete step 6. Address Book would crash every time I tried to import by address book vCard. So instead of step 6, I added iCloud as an account in the Address Book preferences which then immediately downloaded all my contacts. Now Address Book is back to normal and fully functional again. This solution is described by David Pugsley in this thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3429887?answerId=16946621022#16946621022

I had also tried exporting the Address Book Archive, deleting the Address Book folder in Application Support and then importing the Address Book Archive. This did NOT work for me because Address Book still had the same problems after the import, namely, no search ability and contacts would open in their own separate window.

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Answer 10

Dec 8, 2011 2:58 AM in response to Joo-Chen

Sarah, try to Empty trash after step 5. has been applied ...D+++

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Answer 11

Dec 16, 2011 12:13 PM in response to ZBZB

I haven't touched my Mac after another day of address book crashing. What is next?

THank you Dansen_bratislava, I did remember to do that. I also did export my address book (after changing them again and again) several times. I'm trying to remain calm and not over exaggerate, but it just keeps crashing.

I'm convinced this has to do with updates... and just before the crashing I activated my iCloud. I can't figure out what iCloud has to do with it though. I am going to do what ZBZB says - at least I will have it on the net. Otherwise I guess I will just take it in.

More to come...

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Answer 12

Jan 29, 2012 7:57 PM in response to Joo-Chen

I had problems opening searching in Address Book. I closed my address book, went to Utilities, opened Disk Utility, did a Repair Disk Permissions. When that finished I opened Address book and every thing worked fine.

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Answer 13

Nov 18, 2014 12:20 PM in response to Joo-Chen

Ooops. Wrong place. Sorry.

Wow! Blood pressure is back to normal. Many thanks!

A screen shot of this going right into my "Software Helps" folder.

--GG

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Answer 14

Nov 18, 2014 12:23 PM in response to dansen_bratislava

Wow! Blood pressure is back to normal. Many thanks!

A screen shot of this going right into my "Software Helps" folder.

--GG

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